Have nothing to do with each other. I wanted to take a nap, but I can't. We've just introduced Hodge kitty to the other cats, and they are all going insane.

Hiss hiss hiss. DOOM DOOM DOOOOM!

He is just wandering around, following me from room to room. I don't blame him, since the others are pretty upset. There is much growling.

The result is-- all cats are freaking out, loudly. And I can't get that nap. Sigh. It sucks too, because I know if I could just sleep for another hour, I could attack the other stuff I need to do with verve. And vim. And vigor!

I was going to write about Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball video last week, but we had to go to the vet a whole bunch of times. And there was other stuff, and then I just gave up on the blog post. Couldn't make it happen.

So now my thoughts about her video seem played out, especially with Sinead O'Connor and Amanda Palmer weighing in. And possibly feuding?

I'm going to write the post anyway, because it's my blog and I can!

I am very glad that almost all of the art I made as a teenager and young adult is basically gone and out of my sight. My mom still has some of it, and I am forced to look at it when I go to her house. The stuff from when I was a little girl doesn't bother me so much. I barely knew how to paint. So the work is bad on a technique level. Maybe not so bad for an 11 year old, but still. Stinky.

The stuff she has from when I was first trying to make my own compositions is the stuff it pains me to look it. It's pretty fucking awful. And I thought it was boss at the time. I had a teacher who let me get away with literally illustrating the lyrics of a song. Like, if they said "dog", I drew a dog.

It's so bad! But. It's not out there on the internets for everyone to see. Forever.

I am 35, and I am SO FUCKING GLAD I grew up before Youtube was a thing. Before Facebook and before leaving a digital trail of every idiot decision I made ever.

So, yes. The Wrecking Ball video is bad. And it's out there forever, which is unfortunate.

But the question is, why is it bad? I think it's bad because it's literally got an actual wrecking ball in the song called Wrecking Ball with lyrics that reference wrecking balls.

It's too much. It's weirdly too literal. Because the stuff where Miley is naked and the thing where she licks the sledgehammer seems like it's supposed to be more figurative, but it just doesn't read as figurative enough to me.

I had a costume design professor who used to repeat over and over that I needed to add more levels to my work. She said it wasn't just enough to execute your first thought well. You have to have second and third and further thoughts than that.

You execute a first thought, add another perspective, cut everything up, mash it around a bit and execute another thought. Think about that for awhile and then smash it all up again and then see what you have. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

It has taken me a long time to realize that being an artist is not just about being able to perfect your technique. It's also about spending huge amounts of time thinking about the work. And yeah, as much as I would like to slide by on pure esthetics, sometimes I need to spend time thinking about what it all means.

I think other people are making fun of/having a problem with the nudity? I'm not sure. The first place I heard about it was in wacky gif form.

Whatever. If she wants to get naked, she should. I think the nudity doesn't really work for me in the context of the video. I wish she had pushed it further. There is an element of the grotesque in the sledgehammer licking. I would like to see her dig even further into that in the future, if that is something she's interested in.

More nudity. Be weird and super gross with it. Go far enough that your intentions are clear. Don't stop at the point where I'm not sure if you're joking or if you know how this looks. Go further. No half measures.

(It's totally possible that she wanted to go even further, and her label wouldn't go for it.)

I was also concerned (like Sinead O'Connor) about her being taken advantage of, but I also thought she had just turned 18, which is wrong. She's 20 and she's grown. If she wants to give the world a big ole middle finger 'fuck you', well. So did I at 20. And at 18 and 15 too. You can't really tell people not to do things you think they might regret later. Cause they have to have their own life.

I also have many thoughts about Amanda Palmer, but this is getting long, so I'll save them up for another time.